US, Philippines tear into China coast guard for water cannon blast against Manila’s vessels

Manila, December 9

The Philippines and its treaty ally, the United States, separately condemned a high-seas assault on Saturday by the Chinese coast guard together with suspected militia ships that repeatedly blasted water cannons to block three Philippine fisheries vessels from a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. The noontime assault by China’s ships off the Scarborough Shoal, one of the most aggressive this year, caused “significant damage” to the communication and navigation equipment of one of the three Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources ships of the Philippines, Filipino officials said.

They said without elaborating that suspected militia vessels accompanying Chinese coast guard ships used a long-range acoustic device that could impair hearing causing “severe temporary discomfort and incapacitation to some Filipino crew”.

It’s the latest flare out of the long-seething territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a flashpoint in Asia that has put the US and China on a collision course. China claims virtually the entire strategic waterway, but the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also pressed their separate claims.

The US has warned that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines, its longtime treaty ally, if Filipino forces, aircraft and ships come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

China has warned the US to stay away from what it calls a purely Asian dispute. It has deployed ships and aircraft to closely shadow US Navy ships and aircraft which periodically undertake freedom of navigation and overflight patrols in one of the world’s most hotly disputed seas.

US Ambassador to Manila MaryKay Carlson condemned the People’s Republic of China’s “aggressive, illegal actions against the Philippine BFAR vessels lawfully operating in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone”. — AP

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